Rosemary. Rosmarinus officinalis. Affectionately “Dew of the Sea” in Latin, also referred to as “Anthos” in Greek, or “flower.” It makes a delicious, comforting roasted chicken, especially when it’s plucked straight from the homestead garden. Walk through the Rosemary bed on a warm summer day, and you’ll be greeted with an aromatic burst of the
Category: Frugal Homesteading
Okra is amazing, especially when its many pods are cut up, battered, and fried. Okra, in all of its golden, delicious, and tender glory, is also one of the easiest plants to grow on our homestead. It’s one of the most prolific, too; I begin to dislike okra pods as the season comes to a
I know that I cannot possibly be the only person that gets this excited just because…. The gardening catalogs arrived!!! All of the berry bushes. The fruit and nut trees. The special seed deals. The exotic and fun fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Bulbs, galore! Does it just give you that warm, fuzzy feeling too? Doesn’t
This is a largely taboo topic in the homestead world. On one side of the coin, you have people who strongly discourage using human urine as fertilizer in the garden. They are most concerned about disease, and it’s just plain gross if I can be bluntly honest. However, with the homesteaders we are, we believe in
To the new homesteader or gardener, preparing potting soil before reusing it might seem to be simply removing the old plant and putting the soil into the next pot to be used. For the experienced gardener, there are so many different reasons to squirm at that thought! Used potting soil could carry diseases or parasites,
Having a single dairy cow on a homestead can prove to be quite the challenge: how are you going to use up all of that spare milk?! Even a die-hard milk fan will have a hard time working through a gallon of milk on a daily basis. I cannot fathom drinking glasses and glasses of
Growing strawberries from seed is extremely exciting- I should know! While I didn’t exactly stratify my berries in my experiment, they did sit in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. This might have been all of the stratifying that they needed; so, chances are, your local grocer has already taken care of this. But to be
Throughout the mid and late 1900’s, many farmers found a way to reuse what they had on the farm, including motor oil. During hard times, especially when it came to farming families, sometimes “making due with what you have” was all the farmer could do to stretch his or her resources. They would up-cycle the
Container gardening makes gardening fun and easy in rental or urban properties. We LOVE container gardening, even with our 3 acres! However, you might notice that a mid-sized pot of at least 5 gallons will run you $10, $15, maybe even $20 or more. This ends up being an outrageous price tag in the end…
So, you go outside with plans to check out your compost pile, like any other regular day on the homestead. Perhaps you’re adding some garden fresh veggie scraps from last night’s delicious oven roasted chicken recipe; or maybe you just shredded a ton of junk mail from the last two weeks, and you’re ready to
I’m sure you’ve tried to save seeds from some of your favorite tomatoes, melons, or squashes. Perhaps you decide to look back on your home grown seed stash only to find that MOLD has taken over, probably destroying your seeds! This will feel rather devastating; especially if you don’t have additional fruits to save seeds